Google-owned Motorola’s Moto X smartphone with always-on Google Now functionality launched on August 1, but has failed to gain much traction as pundits deemed its $200 on-contract asking price a lot to pay for what is basically mid-range hardware.

It’s also considerably disadvantaged price-wise compared to Google’s just-released Nexus 5 with Android 4.4 KitKat, which retails for $349 unlocked. However, Motorola’s been rumored to be working on a low cost Moto X variant called Moto G from the onset.

Indeed, today the company issued press invites for a media event on Wednesday, November 13. According to a teaser on Motorola’s web page, the low-cost Moto X will be in fact marketed under the Moto G moniker…

Moto G should be what analysts thought Apple’s iPhone 5c would become: a low-cost, affordable mid-tier handset for the masses and emerging markets. The budget Moto smartphone is rumored to include a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, a five-megapixel camera and eight gigabytes of onboard storage.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Moto G will run Android 4.3 Jelly Bean rather than a newer Android 4.4 KitKat build which Google optimized to support low-cost hardware in a bid to fight the fragmentation problem.

The Moto G-branded device previously surfaced in trademark applications and DroidLife spotted the Moto G menu item which had briefly appeared on the Moto X site.

Moreover, 9to5Google has heard that Motorola is working on some cool stuff, including a set “smart headphones”.

technology: the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry.

So yes, this is techology…

Chuck Finley

Congratulations, you’ve won the coveted “Utterly Idiotic iSheeple Response of the Day” award.

Maxim∑

Moto X is a great phone, Moto G will be to if they get the price right

felixtaf

Rumor price is 135 pounds. For that price, this phone has an impressive piece of hardware (based on leaked specs).

Gróf Attila

nexus 5 turned out to be a great phone …wish it had 4 inch srcreen and ios and iphone’s camera and iphone’s design and apple’s chipset…hmmm well its a tough call

Hwang Lee

you’re right, the nexus 5 did turn out be a great phone.. for people that don’t want an Apple product.

Be open minded.

Dan

that’s rarely seen here

R4

Well tbh nexus phones are the best value for money. They cost less than half as much as an iphone

Maxim∑

Nexus 5 has only a 2300mah battery for a 5in 1080p display. Google says it will get only 7 hours LTE and 8.5 browsing in good conditions.

erod434

That’s better than what I got on my iphone 4s… besides who is going to surf the web for 7-8.5 hours in one day? Anyways for a phone that costs 1/3 or more less than the iphone, you cannot argue that it is an awesome phone for the price, possibly the best value on the market.

Maxim∑

If it actually reached ~7hrs I wouldnt be complaining that would be really good but with mixed use on Nexus 4 its only 1hr 25min screen on time despite google saying it should get 9hr usage. It all depends what your doing.

Besides the battery the Nexus 5 is a great phone!

Rowan09

I’ve said if before and Google cares less about hardware. Google’s business is advertising and everything they do is just a supplement for advertising.

Hwang Lee

This is Motorola’s phone, not Google’s.

Rowan09

They own Motorola.

Hwang Lee

But they work separately.

Google’s main product line is the Nexus.

Rowan09

I understand but that’s made by LG. The Moto X is Googles Nexus on Motorola. Nevertheless hardware is not what they care about but I understand what you’re saying.

Hwang Lee

Yeah you’re completely right

marcus1324

Google owns Motorola and designs everything related to that. For Nexus, Google designs the UI and LG makes the phone.

Hwang Lee

I don’t think so.

I think Google merely put their main goal behind to Moto X: an Android phone for average consumers (the iPhone of Android).

However, I’m 99% sure Motorola designed and created the Moto X (like the X8 computing system)

I read somewhere that Motorola and Google employees rarely talk to each other (may be false though).

marcus1324

Now that I think of it I may have heard that too I will look it up now thanks for the info.

appleyay

nooooo.pleas no we dont need anymore android hardware

Dan

What’s it matter to you? If you don’t like options, keep buying Apple products.

sivkai

What do you expect from a user named ‘appleyay’. Jeez…the fanboys here make me sick.

Maxim∑

Google always takes shortcuts on hardware to keep the price low. I don’t understand why they can’t just make a well balanced phone for a normal cost

Dan

The Nexus 7 and Nexus 4-5 are solid products. Obviously they can’t match Apple build quality for 1/3 the price.

Different customer base. On one hand, you have someone who is willing to buy an iPad mini 32Gb for (519 is it?). Then you have someone else who is willing to buy a Nexus 7 32GB which is pretty similar tbh for 269$.

It’s good to have options.

Maxim∑

I own a Nexus 4. Its far from being solid unless you keep the price as a factor. The Nexus 5 seems like a major improvement but Google did not keep the 3000mah SIO battery from the LG G2, instead its a standard 2300mah battery at the same display size and resolution of the G2 which means battery life will be significantly worse thats one major shortcut to keep price low.

I agree with you, but a high end model with top everything maybe for 429$ would bring more customers.